Does the Pope still think the Earth is center of the universe?

Question

Or did he finally listen to scientific evidence

Answer 1

No, how could he think that ?

By the way, did you find out who is your father ?

Answer 2

I do not think that Pope Benedict XVI ever thought this.

Another Pope Benedict (XIV) granted an imprimatur (an official appproval) to the first edition of the Complete Works of Galileo in 1741.

“[Galileo] declared explicitly that the two truths, of faith and of science, can never contradict each other, 'Sacred Scripture and the natural world proceeding equally from the divine Word, the first as dictated by the Holy Spirit, the second as a very faithful executor of the commands of God', as he wrote in his letter to Father Benedetto Castelli on 21 December 1613. The Second Vatican Council says the same thing, even adopting similar language in its teaching: 'Methodical research, in all realms of knowledge, if it respects... moral norms, will never be genuinely opposed to faith: the reality of the world and of faith have their origin in the same God' (Gaudium et Spes, 36). Galileo sensed in his scientific research the presence of the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions”: John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (10 November 1979): Insegnamenti, II, 2 (1979), 1111-1112. From the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.html

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

You are obviously referring to the Galileo case.

The infallibility of the Church attaches to its officially proclaimed dogmas, such as Christ’s two natures or Mary’s Immaculate Conception. These are matters of the highest authority. The Church cannot be wrong in these matters. But in matters of empirical science or anything that is not what is called de fide, the Church can and has made many reversals. If these had been matters of dogma, the Church could not have reversed itself.

Answer 4

The problem is that Rome thinks She is the center of the universe. While she has exalted herself above the Bible, and claims to be it's sole infallible interpreter of it - both of which all cults presume - her past and present history shows the opposite.

As far as Geocentricity is concerned, that is very minor error of hers as compared with issues of eternal salvation. But for the record,

Athanasius: "but the earth is not supported upon itself, but is set upon the realm of the waters, while this again is kept in its place, being bound fast at the center of the universe." (Against the Heathen, Book I, Part I).

Popes Paul V, Urban VIII, and Alexander VII all ratified[ the statement used in the 1633-06-22 condemnation of Galileo by the Congregation for the Index: "The proposition that the Earth is not the centre of the world and immovable but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd and false philosophically and theologically considered at least erroneous in faith".

Most scientists of the day also held to geocentricity , but Rome misunderstood the Bible's use of the word "unmoveable," which refers to it''s general stability (and permanence), not a static existence, as in Psa 16:8 "I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Yet we move quite a bit. And the Bible tells us the world will one day be moved (Rev. 20:11), to be replaced by truly permanent, unchangeable one, though the old earth could forever exist somewhere.

Or they misunderstand the Bible when it speaks as describing things from a point of observation, and not that of precise scientific fact, just as every (sun centered universe) heliocentric scientist in America can state that "the sun rises in the east," though it actually does not rise at all.

The issue is not simply the condemnation of Galileo , as he did not incontrovertibly prove heliocentricity, but whether Rome was acting infallibly when it affirmed geocentricism, which it has since never officially renounced to my knowledge, while she also fosters implicit faith in herself for salvation, rather than directly in Christ and His shed blood for salvation.

Answer 5

No, the official stance of the Catholic Church is that you cannot seek scientific truths from the Bible, because that is not the Bible's purpose. Catholics accept modern understandings of the universe and evolution.

Answer 6

I believe that the Papacy acknowledges a heliocentric system, though a geocentric one is possible to construct but is not very logical based on our current understanding of earthbound physics though modern science could be wrong.

Answer 7

I wouldn't really look to the Pope for science.

Answer 8

I think you need to try and understand that pushing someone out of their convert zone is hard to do. Let people believe what they want. As lone as they also let people believe what they want.

Answer 9

that matter was settled a very long time ago . many popes ago .

Answer 10

I doubt it.He can see for himself since he built the friggin deathstar.